If the Ten Commandements were a Legal Code

Scene from History of the World, Part One

The Ten Commandments in a Court Building?

Every now and then, a controversy comes up regarding the
erection of religious-oriented monuments on government land. Sometimes, this
involves the display of the Ten Commandments in some sort of a court building.
Supporters of these displays argue that they are merely acknowledging these
rules as a major foundation for our legal system. In my view, these people are
seriously misled. The Ten Commandments, rather than being a foundation for our
legal code, contradict the Constitution in some cases. In addition, certain
commandments could never be practically enforced as legal ordinances. The Ten
Commandments is primarily a religious and moral code, not a legal one, a fact
that I will briefly demonstrate by taking a quick look at each commandment.

Commandments 1-4: Regulating Religious Practice

1) “You shall have no other gods before me.” The opening statements of the
First Amendment guarantee the freedom of religion. So the Constitution
guarantees our right to commit the ultimate Biblical sin of worshipping other
Gods. So unless you think that the United States should be a theocracy, it is
hard to justify placing a code in a legal building with an opening command that
flies in the face of such an important Constitutional principle.

2)“You shall not make for yourself an image in the form of anything in
heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below.” See my response
to commandment one. In my view, if religious monuments are to be placed in public
places, then we should give equal treatment to all religions. So right next to
the Ten Commandments, crosses, or anything else, we should erect some “brazen
images” and “idols” from other religious traditions. Since the state is
constitutionally forbidden from “respecting an establishment of religion,” we
should acknowledge all religious traditions in public places or none at all.
Plus, if the term “image” was interpreted very broadly, a lot of artists could
get in some serious trouble.

3) “You shall not misuse the name of
the LORD your God.” I have heard this
explained in different ways. Some would say that this forbids blasphemy or the
use of God’s Hebrew name, but I have heard this also interpreted as a command
against more general profanity: “God damn it!”, “Jesus Christ!”, etc. Either
way, it seems to contradict freedom of expression. Of course, some could
counter that there are restrictions on freedom of speech and the press such as
rules regarding obscenity. And there was a time when the censors were much
tighter regarding the mainstream media. So assuming that these rules do not in
principle contradict the First Amendment, maybe this commandment could be seen
as a foundation for “obscenity laws.” Hopefully, however, no one wants to go
back to stoning people for “blasphemy.” That could get ugly fast.

4) “Remember the Sabbath day by
keeping it holy.” To make this a legal code, you would first have to determine
which Sabbath to keep holy. Should it be the original Sabbath of Friday evening
until Saturday evening, or should we go with the more recent Christian
tradition of observing it on Sunday?
Plus, legal scholars would have to spend a lot of time defining what is
meant by work. It’s hard to imagine this ever being strictly enforced. Many
Americans (and shopping malls) would freak out without weekend shopping. Also,
it would eliminate Americans’ true national religion of watching sports on the
weekend. You would need a very large Sabbath police to keep the masses in line.

Laws are supposed to be created in order to promote
the public good: to maintain order, defend the state, and protect individual
rights. They are designed to stop people from engaging in behaviors that harm
others. Try as I might, I can’t see how the breaking of commandments one
through four infringes on the rights of others. Worshipping idols, working on
the Sabbath, and misuse of God’s name have no measurable, negative impact on
anyone else. Obedience of these commands does not in itself promote ethical
behavior or civic responsibility. Instead, these commandments attempt to shape
the theological beliefs of people and promote obedience to God for its own
sake. Personally, I do not want to live under a legal code that seeks to
promote a certain mode of thought and forces me to follow a purely religious
tradition. An orthodox system of belief is impossible to enforce anyway. People
may give the appearance of faith, but there is no way to determine if it is
legitimate.

Amendments 5-10: Regulating Human Interaction

5) “Honor your father and
your mother.” Because I cannot read Hebrew, I’m not quite sure what was meant
by honor. As we all know, there are some parents out there who are not worthy
of honor or obedience. In some cases, the honoring of parents can lead someone
into behavior that is downright evil, behavior that contradicts other
commandments. Still, respect of elders is a nice ideal to strive for. It cannot
really be enforced, however, as part of a legal code. If people were punished
every time that they dishonored their parents, there would be a whole lot of
fines being paid or prison sentences being served. You would need an enormous
police force just to deal with the damn teenagers.

6) “You shall not
murder.” This is one commandment that has to be a part of any rational legal
code. It’s basically a no-brainer. Killing another person clearly infringes on
that person’s rights. There may be some debate, however, regarding what murder
actually means. Most people with a Judeo-Christian belief system, after all,
believe that killing is justified in certain situations: self-defense,
policing, military action, etc. Extreme pacifists, however, might see all
killing as murder. But given the fact that Old Testament law mandated the death
penalty as punishment for just about anything, along with the fact that the
Biblical God frequently kills people or instructs his followers to do so, it is
difficult to both accept scripture as truth and be an extreme pacifist.

7) “You shall not commit adultery.”
If I am not mistaken, adultery is defined as sex outside of marriage, not
merely cheating on one’s spouse. Either way, it is hard to imagine this
instituted as law. For lawmakers, after all, this would hit too close to home.
If adultery were punished, however, it would at least force “Family Values”
conservatives to go after one of the behaviors – along with divorce - that
actually threatens marriage. It could also go a long way toward either reducing
budget deficits through the collection of fines or increasing the already
swelling prison population. It would also create the opportunity to produce a
reality show called “Sex Cops,” although this would have to be on cable due to
graphic content.

8) “You shall not steal.” This is
another legally enforceable commandment that is a no-brainer as part of a legal
code. Protecting property is one of the essential functions of government. The
term “steal,” however, can be a bit tricky. If a government taxes its people
beyond what is reasonable or necessary, is this stealing? If a worker is
exploited to the point that he or she cannot reasonably survive, would it be
wrong to steal food? In a world filled with massive social inequality and
injustice, a world in which governments often exist to serve the leaders rather
than the general population, is it okay to disobey unjust laws instituted by
lousy lawmakers? The Bible does not seem to provide any clear answers to these
obvious questions.

9) “You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor.” In certain
circumstances, you can be punished for lying: perjury, slander, fraud, etc. It
can be difficult to determine, however, when a “little white lie” crosses over
into illegal territory. If people were punished for every lie, that would
definitely take care of all the people not already paying the price for
breaking the Sabbath, committing adultery, or dishonoring their parents. And
the politicians and lawyers charged with making, interpreting, and helping to
enforce laws would have trouble winning elections and cases.

10) “You shall not covet your
neighbor’s house. You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or his male or
female servant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.” I
think that I could probably avoid coveting my neighbor’s farm animals or
servants. But I hate to admit that envy may occasionally creep in when it comes
to the other items in commandment 10. I probably have no need to worry. This
one would really be a bitch to enforce. In theory, however, it may be possible
someday to detect coveting with technology. A certain part of the brain may
trigger when we feel envy, so maybe a covet detector could be created that will
go off at the appropriate time. A message could then quickly be sent to law
enforcement so that they could instantly withdraw funds from my bank account.
Man, talk about taking a cut out of budget deficits. But without this kind of
technology, I guess that we would have to go with the covet police or with
citizen’s arrests in which people are quickly cited when they get that covetous
look in their eyes.

The principles of amendments five through ten can at least
be viewed as the moral foundation for many laws. Instead of dealing with
religious beliefs, they deal with how people interact with one another. The
enforceable ones, however, are pretty obvious and vague, and they do not
represent a major legal or moral insight by the people who compiled the code.
Others represent noble ideals to strive for but not rules that could be
reasonably enforced. So arguing that these somewhat vague, unoriginal, and
often unenforceable commandments played a major role in the development of our
legal system is a bit of a stretch.

Does Anyone Want a Biblical Law Code?

Of course, Jewish law got a lot more detailed than the Ten
Commandments. Few Americans, however, would ever want to go back to that legal
system. The rules are often too outdated or silly, the punishments are too
harsh, and way too many animals had to be dismembered every day to offer
sacrifices of atonement in order to make up for our constant disobedience. If
you don’t believe me, try a simple experiment. First, try to find someone who
knows little about the Bible. In the United States, that is just as easy as
finding someone who knows almost nothing about the Constitution. Then, pick and
choose some random Biblical laws and the punishments for breaking them. When
you are done, ask them what they think of this legal system. Whether the person
was Jewish, Christian, agnostic, or atheist, I think that you can predict what
their response will be.

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